Now that I have several new products coming out in succession, I've been thinking a lot about how best to feature them at my Web site. My thoughts have turned to how supermarkets and department stores highlight certain products, and I've found useful analogies between catching
attention of a customer wheeling a cart up and down aisles and a shopper on Web.Here are some merchandising techniques you'll find in bricks-and- mortars stores and their counterparts on Web:
1. New products. In stores, these often smack you in eye when you first walk in. On Web, popular sites feature new products in a prominent spot on home page.
2. Seasonal items. My local supermarket places these at ends of aisles and in a special interior aisle set aside for barbecue supplies in summer, Halloween candy in fall and rock salt in winter. On Web, they often are featured on home page but not centrally, getting less of a spotlight than new products.
3. Combinations of items. In department stores, you'll often see signs saying, "Buy three for only $25." Amazon.com is currently promoting book titles in this way, bundling two related titles together for an appealing discount, making sales of those items jump.
4. Non-traditional combinations. In supermarkets, instead of simply putting fruit with fruit and condiments with condiments, this involves putting caramel and piecrusts next to apples and lemons on top of fish counter. On Web, this seems feasible at sites selling more than one kind of merchandise.
